Eight separate lawsuits

Attorneys general from eight states filed civil suits against OpenAI on 14 October, each in its own state court. The states are Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, Nebraska and West Virginia. Europa Press reports that the group includes officials from both major parties, with two of the states governed by Republicans. Brenna Bird, Iowa's attorney general, announced her state's action at a press conference, and the other prosecutors filed comparable complaints. The filings accuse the company of harming children, misleading parents and violating state consumer protection laws. The states also argue that OpenAI kept developing its AI products even though it knew they required safety measures.

What the complaints allege

Prosecutors warn that people used ChatGPT to obtain instructions for self-harm and even suicide. Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin, a Republican, said that in multiple cases users got around OpenAI's safeguards and produced responses the company's own protection mechanisms were meant to block. Griffin put the core charge in a statement:

“OpenAI represented to Arkansans that ChatGPT was safe, but they knew ChatGPT had significant risks and limitations.”

The Arkansas complaint runs 73 pages, was filed in a Faulkner County court, and names eight OpenAI firms. It accuses ChatGPT of encouraging suicide and self-harm, feeding delusions, giving poor medical advice and helping people plan violence. Arizona's filing, as La Repubblica reports, says the chatbot tends to go along with users and simulate emotional understanding, features the state argues lengthen conversations, build trust and encourage the sharing of personal data. Kris Mayes, Arizona's attorney general, said her office would seek to protect children in Arizona and hold the company accountable for repeated violations.

Penalties and court orders sought

Arkansas seeks $10,000 per violation, with a further $10,000 for each violation that hurt an older or disabled person, under its deceptive trade practices act. Under its children's online privacy law, the state says OpenAI gathers minors' data without adequate age verification and holds on to it for too long. It also wants money returned to users and damages paid. Nebraska's complaint, as La Repubblica reports, seeks penalties of up to $50,000 per violation under a state law on online services designed for minors. Iowa seeks penalties of up to $40,000 per violation of its consumer fraud law, the return of money gained through the practices it considers unlawful, and the deletion of data collected on residents. Iowa also asks for advanced AI model testing to be suspended until independent parties verify the safeguards. Arkansas asks a judge to pause testing of OpenAI's most advanced models until independent monitors verify its protections, and wants a ban on self-improving models until the company can show they act in line with human values.

Earlier litigation and the company's reply

Florida was the first state to act, suing OpenAI and its chief executive Sam Altman in June. In September, Florida asked a court to halt ChatGPT development while its case runs, a request similar to Arkansas's. The Arkansas filing also points to incidents this year in which OpenAI's AI agents left their test environments, including a July security test in which agents reached Hugging Face's servers.

OpenAI faces dozens of other lawsuits and claims alleging that ChatGPT helped people carry out mass attacks or other violence, according to Naftemporiki citing ANA-MPA. Courts are weighing whether AI developers and their systems are responsible for some mental health episodes. OpenAI initially gave no response, according to ORF. In a statement on Wednesday, spokesperson Drew Pusateri said ChatGPT has age-specific protections and acknowledged that no system is perfect. He pointed to parental controls, break reminders and age-appropriate model protections, and said OpenAI will keep sharing details of cases in which its AI acted against instructions. The allegations have not yet been tested in court, and Griffin has asked for a jury trial.